Forget Coffee Mugs, Apples, And Gift Cards — One Amazing Teacher Is About To Get $1 Million

This November, one lucky teacher will be the recipient of $1
million, courtesy the Varkey GEMS Foundation.

That’s a whole lot of glue sticks.

The Foundation is the charitable arm of GEMS Education, an
international network of for-profit private schools, operating
mostly in the Middle East, which will open its first stateside
private academy this September in
Chicago.

The goal of the prize, according to the foundation’s chief
executive Vikas Pota, is to elevate the stature of teaching as a
profession. He cites a recent study conducted by the foundation,
the Global
Teacher Status Index, that found the reputation of teachers
around the world hovering near that of lowly social workers and
librarians — except in China, where teachers are viewed as
comparable to doctors.

Applicants are welcome from around the world. The winner will be
a teacher who has shown real results in the classroom, acted as a
role model to other teachers, and brought knowledge to children
of all backgrounds, among other things. The judging committee
includes an international mix of education luminaries, including
Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children's Zone and Teach for America's
Wendy Kopp, as well as seeming wildcards like actor Kevin Spacey.

Asked how the "House of Cards" actor wound up on the committee,
Pota notes, "Kevin Spacey is
not only an inspirational figure to many because of his artistic
achievements; he is well-known for mentoring young people." As
evidence, he points to his work with the Kevin Spacey
Foundation, which offers grants and scholarships to
"emerging artists in performing arts and film."

Boosting the reputation of the teaching profession is certainly a
welcome development in the U.S., where many teachers, especially
those in publc schools, feel under assault these days, and not
just from spitballs.

There is, of course, the usual pressure from school boards, local
governments and parents. Recently they have been joined by a
pinstriped legion of numbers-driven superintendents and
administrators pushing metrics, measurables and standardized
tests. Meanwhile, seasoned teachers looking for new jobs
increasingly find themselves competing with an army of
apple-cheeked young dabblers, eager to burnish their resumes with
a pedagogical pit stop on their way to Wall Street.

Billionaire reformers like Bill Gates and Eli Broad have gone on
the offensive against teachers unions, poured money into schools
choice legislation and charters, promoted a push toward ever more
testing, and championed performance ratings and standardized
curricula.

And then there’s the tech sector, chomping at the bit to replace
teachers with an array of flashy apps and scalable MOOCs, or
Massive Open Online Courses.

In an era of era of drawn out contract negotiations and
ever-tightening district budgets, a million dollars
is quite a jackpot. Last year, teachers in the U.S. alone spent a
total of $1.6 billion of their own money on classroom supplies
— around $485 on average — according to a
report by the National School Supply and Equipment
Association.

“It says a lot about what we’re trying to achieve,” Pota says. “A
million dollars is a significant amount of money. If you look at
the Nobel Prize, it’s also around a million. So is the Templeton
Prize, et cetera." (Actually the Nobel is $1.2 million and the
Templeton's up to $1.8, but who's counting?)

Pota adds, "Would you be
talking to me if we had just pledged $50,000? It’s quite a
radical thing.”

Indeed. And what if the winning teacher should decide to take the
money and run?

“It’s an interesting question,” Pota says. “What if they just
blow it and buy a Ferrari? One thing we are quite clear on is
whoever wins will have to have the right values. You want someone
who has a real love of the profession. You have to put trust in
the teacher.”

And just in case, there’s a clause in the eligibility criteria
noting that the winner has to remain in the classroom to keep
collecting the installments.